COMPANY ENGAGEMENT WITH ST BASILS 11 AUG 2017

In a world of increasing need and decreasing resources, St Basils relies heavily on support from our local community. We want to work with businesses who are interested in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and want to contribute to St Basils and help us support young people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

So, how can you help?

CHARITY OF THE YEAR

There are many ways you can support us through our fundraising efforts. Numerous fundraising events take place throughout the year. (A link to those events can be found at the bottom of this page) One of the things we would like to talk to you about is Charity of the Year. If you would be interested in making us your company’s charity of the year please contact us at fundraising@Stbasils.org.uk

GRADUATION SPONSORSHIP

Many of the young people who come to St Basils disengaged with school quite early and have not achieved any qualifications. While they are with us we encourage them to do Open College Network (OCN) where they gain accredited Lifeskills in a range of subjects eg budgeting, preparation for work etc. When they have successfully completed 3 Lifeskills they achieve Level One qualification. Each Autumn we arrange a ‘Graduation’ event to celebrate the education attainments and young people have the opportunity to have their photograph taken in their ‘cap and gown’ and enjoy, many for the first time, celebrating success. This event is really appreciated by the young people and an essential part of our calendar. However as you can imagine it is quite expensive as we have in excess of 200 young people ‘graduating’ each year. We would welcome sponsorship of the event or for you to sponsor the purchase of a number of ‘cap and gowns’. We currently hire these each year but with numbers increasing this is expensive. We would love to be able to have our own which we could keep and use each year. We can offer you full credit on the night of the event and also coverage on our website and social media channels.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND WORK EXPERIENCE

Many of our young people are keen to get a job, but they lack the qualifications, experience and confidence to secure a position. We would welcome offers of unpaid work experience for our young people, apprenticeships and paid jobs are even better. We have vast experience of working with employers to ensure that they have all the support they need so that our young people thrive and the employer gains the kind of staff they require. For more information please contact Kashimar.munroe@stbasils.org.uk

VOLUNTEERING AND PROFESSIONAL MENTORS

Our volunteers do a range of work with us, everything from helping with the big events, fundraising, admin and direct support to the young people. We are often approached with offers from local companies offering us a number of people for a week to tackle a ‘big job’, that we may have. Occasionally we do have large practical jobs for example decorating or gardening (although we rarely have the money to purchase the materials to make this happen) and we fully appreciate help with this. However, just as useful is direct volunteering for few hours a week or month for a longer period of time. We are also now looking to recruit a team of ‘Professional Mentors’ who will be trained to support young people after they leave St Basils and who find themselves newly independent and quite often without the support of a positive adult role model, that most of us take for granted.

To be a Professional Mentor you will need life experience of education and the world of work and to be able to communicate effectively with young people from a range of backgrounds. You should be positive and forward thinking and have lots of patience.

The time commitment will be to be available by phone or face-to-face when needed and to regular check in with the young person.

Act as a mentor to a young person who has experienced homelessness and has been or is currently NEET (Not in education, employment or training)

Listen and explore issues with the young person to encourage them to make good life choices

Talk through options around education, training, work experience and employment

Encourage the young person to have self-belief and resilience

Provide guidance and act as a critical friends

Help to build the young person’s confidence in themselves and their abilities

Provide an insight into the world of work

Help the young person to review their progress and set realistic goals

Support the young person to learn from things that did not turn out as expected.

Help with CVs and interview practice.

Encourage young person to take responsibility for their own decisions and actions.